The three French minors, Hamas hostages, who were released on Monday evening are doing well, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said happily on RTL radio on Tuesday, emphasizing “the psychological shock”.
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“Random information I have, yes,” she said. “As always in these cases, there is classic medical monitoring, but they do not seem to have been tested beyond this terrible detention – 50 days – and what it may have meant in psychological shock and everyday life difficulties.”
Erez and Sahar Kalderon, 12 and 16, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12, arrived in Israel on Monday evening as part of the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Islamist movement.
They were captured in Israel during the October 7 attacks.
The news “is good above all because of course this release is a real relief and we share it with the mother of Sahar and Erez and the grandmother of Ethan,” added the minister, who has to speak with the families during the day.
“We share their joy and their great relief, even if we know that these are families who are suffering, have lost a loved one or have not heard from their parents,” she emphasized.
She recalled that President Emmanuel Macron and herself had met the families and that everyone continued to mobilize to free the five other French people, some of whom were hostages and others who were still missing due to lack of proof of life.
Catherine Colonna also reported “difficult” negotiations between Qatar, which is acting as mediator, Hamas and Israel.
“Until the last moment, we do not know,” she said, stressing that it was Hamas, “a terrorist organization responsible for cruel, heinous and barbaric attacks,” that was handing over lists to Qatar.
“Then the hostages who are called for release are brought together by the same Hamas. We need to bring them together and bring them back to the point of contact, the ICRC,” she continued.
“But sometimes there are discussions about names, the number of people, the quality of the person, whether a person could not be found or collected in time,” she also said, explaining that some hostages were in the hands of Hamas, others in in the hands of Islamic Jihad, others “in the hands of individuals”.
“At the end of the day (yesterday) we breathe a sigh of relief, I won’t hide that from you,” she finally confessed.
While two more lists of hostages to be released are drawn up thanks to the two-day extension of the ceasefire granted by Israel, Catherine Colonna reiterated that France wants a “permanent ceasefire” to release “all hostages.”
On October 7th, around 240 people were kidnapped.
She also stressed the need to work for a ceasefire, for a political solution, “to contribute to de-escalation.”
“We are concerned about the risk of wildfire in the region. “These risks remain real,” concluded Catherine Colonna.